gerri: coming up next, the fiscal cliff into plain english or maybe just simple arithmetic. at the bottom of the york, what should investors expect? will the fiscal ) as of them? don't go away. ♪ >> my new year's resolution is to keep going with my personal trainer. ♪ gerri: up next, some of those trillion dollar figures into perspective. the spending problem if it were your household budget. next. gerri: there is a reason we call this segment back of the envelope. we try to explain in plain english some of the more complicated financial issues. the big issue today, the fiscal cliff. and you may be asking yourself, why is this so important? what is so cataclysmic about our nation's finances that we need to implement these monster tax increases and make draconian spending cuts. well, if you want to understand the government and its problems, take a look at these numbers. let's start with tax revenue. these are the nation's tax revenues. what you have your is just over 2 trillion in income. that's all it is really. and look at these euros. a very big number. the spending i